Village Builders in Creemore has been in the construction business for over 30 years. We build custom homes and specialize in renovations and additions.

Friday, July 26, 2013

The Jaws Ladder

Jaws ladders

Ladders are one of the biggest expenses that a contractor has when buying equipment. Every ladder is made and designed for a different purpose. Some ladders are short and made for quick and easy set up, some ladders are long and heavy and made to be set up for work that is high off the ground.

Most contractors have a pile of ladders in their yards that would make a home depot jealous. The thing with ladders is that the small ladders get used the most and also need to be replaced the most. The longer ladders don’t and they tend to be around for much longer periods of time. It can be a frustrating thing endlessly buying small ladders and having to look at the inventory of longer ladders that seem to sit in one place for 75% of the year until they are needed. There is a solution; it’s called the JAWS Ladder.

A jaws ladder is a telescopic ladder that when folded up starts as a simple 5ft step ladder, with extending the legs down it becomes a 12 ft step ladder. If you unfold the ladder at its main hinge point that is in the middle of the ladder it becomes a 10 ft straight ladder and will extend to 24 ft in the air. The extensions work in a way that you can extend it around 1 ft at a time. This means that this one ladder is actually 4 or 5 different ladders in one.

Jaws ladders have wider bases at the top and bottom of the ladder and are made of a heavier material then normal ladders. This makes them extremely sturdy to work on and to also carry material like shingles up without the fear of the rungs on the ladder collapsing.

There are a couple down sides to the jaws ladder, it is a very heavy ladder to carry around. It can be a difficult ladder to maneuver in tight spaces and inside finished homes. Also because the top and the bottom of the ladder are wider than normal ladders you might find it difficult to squeeze it into certain spaces around gables.

One thing you will find if you buy the original JAWS ladder and not the cheap knockoffs that are being sold out there is that the ladder will last you a long time. We have a pair of JAWS ladders that we bought 20 years ago; one is still around and functioning perfectly. The second one was around for 15 years until someone stole the ladder. That’s right someone stole a 15 year old ladder, that’s how valuable these ladders are to tradesmen out there.

So the next time you need to buy new ladders for your field personal look into the JAWS ladder, you might find that it is the only ladder you need to buy.